In Soviet Prisons

To the Editors:

A recent telephone communication from the mother of Vladimir Buchofsky, the Soviet dissident now serving out a severe sentence for his efforts to apprise the world of the punitive use of psychiatric confinement for political dissenters in his country, brings the alarming news that Buchofsky is a very sick man. He has come down with a disease of the liver, and as the prison officials refuse him medical care, Mrs. Buchofsky fears for his life. We urge everyone concerned with his case to write letters of appeal to the Soviet authorities, asking on humanitarian grounds that he be given the treatment he requires, and that his conditions be adjusted in the light of his ill health.

Renata Cardinale

Arthur C. Danto

Amnesty International-USA

New York City